Saturday, January 17, 2015

Names! And I feel like I'm only doing this qualification attempt out of a desire for completeness. I really should make more of an effort to learn how to remember what people are called or what they look like.

I could have manufactured a better score for this by learning in advance the relatively small selection of names and faces that the training software provides, but there doesn't seem much point - presumably in the XMT itself we'll get all-new faces. If I had to qualify, perhaps I would have done that, but then again maybe I'd just have assumed I could get through on my scores in the other disciplines, just like I've done in every other memory competition I've ever competed in...

I missed my twice-daily training on Thursday and Friday because of having to work extra late (big rush to meet a deadline, not an accounting one but it was something everyone had to chip in with), but I'm back on song now. Next week is numbers! I'm very curious to see what the top score will be in that - I'm expecting something under 20 seconds...

So, in my capacity as the first ever memory competitor to have a blog* I feel that I should make more of an effort to entertain the world with daily ramblings about nothing in particular. I'll think of something to say tomorrow, probably.

Sunday, January 11, 2015

I don't know what made me suddenly feel like googling Blake's 7 on Friday, but I'm very glad I did. It turns out every episode is available on YouTube, albeit peppered with adverts every couple of minutes, I've watched the first four already and I think it's just awesome! I'll get the DVDs when I have the time and money.

Meanwhile, qualification for the XMT continues apace - the deadline for submitting your images qualification attempt is midnight tonight, and nearly everyone has done it already, so we can see who's in those coveted top 16 places, and who's nipping at their heels.

The standard time for images turned out to be hugely wrong, so the scores are a bit distorted and weighted in favour of that discipline; maybe the XMT bosses could change it from 30 seconds to 20 to bring it more in line with the other four disciplines, or maybe that would create a storm of outrage from the qualifiers? Actually, I can't really give a disinterested opinion on that, because while changing the standard would move Simon further ahead of me, it would catch me up with Boris - the three of us are only competing for fun, but wanting to win is all part of the fun...

A whole lot of those young Mongolians in there - Enkhjin Tumur leads the way with a particularly fast images time. We also have Johann, Marwin and Annalena who all competed last year, didn't do spectacularly well, but will probably be much harder to beat in 2015 now they've got that experience. Yay for Marlo too, and Katie and Clay aren't far outside the top 16 either, so maybe after next week we'll have a big Team Britain in there!

Next week - Names. I got 16 in a practice session yesterday, and that's entirely respectable.